Husic unloads on Marles as 'factional assassin' after being dumped from ministry

Speaking on Insiders on Sunday morning, Mr Husic hit out at the conduct of Mr Marles in dumping him and former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus from the front bench in the re-elected Labor government.

"The difficult issue here is that we've had bare-faced ambition, and a Deputy Prime Minister wield a factional club to reshape the ministry," Mr Husic said, who was the first Muslim MP and first Muslim minister in Australia.

"When people look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin."

Mr Husic was scathing of the way the process had been managed, saying Mr Marles was "disrespectful" to newly re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

"To put the Prime Minister in a terrible place where he was being asked to intervene, I didn't think that was right either," Mr Husic said, referencing calls by former prime minister Paul Keating, and others, for Mr Albanese to step in.

The new Labor ministry will be sworn in on Tuesday. Mr Dreyfus has kept quiet on what is next for him, however, there is speculation the 68-year-old may retire, triggering a by-election in his safe Melbourne seat of Isaacs.

The rift is the first sign of factional infighting in some time, after Labor's notorious backroom dealings were largely absent from the first Albanese term in contrast to the Rudd and Gillard years.

Mr Husic said that in its second term, the government needed to take on major reforms and was lacklustre in its first term.

"We need to burn through the timidity that has shackled us in the first term," he said.

"We are going to need to make big changes in a world that is changing fast."

Now on the backbench, Mr Husic spoke strongly about Gaza, saying that Israel should be "held to account" for its conduct in the war.

"The Netanyahu government has atrociously managed this," Mr Husic said.

"It has been responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians through its inability to distinguish between combatant and civilian which goes against international humanitarian law."

Mr Husic was respected by the science and technology sectors during his time as minister and said he would continue to contribute in areas such as artificial intelligence, albeit from the backbench.

In a reference to when Mr Husic stood aside to allow former NSW premier Kristina Kenneally to sit on the front bench in 2019, Mr Husic suggested he would not rule out a return to the cabinet at a later date.

"I've walked political deserts before," he said.

"All I hope for at the end is that you might have a bottle of water for me when I emerge."